Thursday, September 25, 2008

you don't know until you do...

The Clothes Closet located in the church I serve didn't have maternity clothes. Even if they did they wouldn't help her because they had already given her a couple of non-maternity clothes to wear. You can only be served once and that's the rule for better or worse.

So, I took her to a Clothes Closet ministry located in a neighboring suburb. All I can say is you don't know until you experience it yourself. I went in with her and witnessed the whole process from start to finish. Because the workers didn't know me they categorized me along with the others who needed help.

Here is the deal:1) They loudly asked and announced personal information.2) They asked some information multiple times with a tone of voice that was patronizing.3) The process took forever. 4) I had the pleasure of overhearing comments made about the woman I was with. "Well, if she's not going to move back home then she can't call herself a hurricane evacuee."

As my daughter frequently says: "Like, seriously?" (For full effect you have to up-talk the last syllable!)

She's not an evacuee because she plans to settle here? Oh, I guess when your apartment blows completely away along with everything else you own you can't call yourself an evacuee. I suppose because you are not eager to run back home to absolutely nothing you can't call yourself an evacuee! "Like, seriously?"

Go sit on the receiving end of a helping agency and see what you can't see now, hear what you can't hear now. Even at their nicest....I left feeling patronized, judged and treated as if I had been a royal pain in the butt.

You don't know until you put yourself in the shoes of another person. When you do....you will be more apt to get off your high horse.I did.

Followers

a bit of my story

My grandmother taught me the art of laughter. She also taught me to be honest about life. Along the way as I share the ups and downs of my journey I consistently bump into laughter.
Laughter is a many sided gift of which humor is only one aspect. I believe laughter is like prayer....with faith and hope there is always space for laughter. We laugh....for the last word will be justice and liberation and goodness!

faith and life

faith is an integral part of my life. every aspect of life holds a dose of faith.

Bishop Desmund Tutu

There are so many good people and so many beautiful things, and I want to be able to luxuriate in contemplating the goodness, the beauty, the laughter and the courage that is in the world.

ee cummings

the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

Mark Twain:

"The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter."

Ricardo Levins Morales:

"Laughter is the sound of hope - Hope is the seed of power - Power is the combined force of a multitude of voices joined together...that began as a mere whisper, lost in the immense darkness and the ferocious cold and only kept alive by small improbable notes of laughter."

Anne Lamott:

“Laughter is carbonated holiness, It is effervescent, full of fizz.

A smile, a grin, or full-bodied laughter is such a gift in our super-serious world. It reminds us of friendship, of joy, of playfulness. And, it’s contagious."

Karl Barth:

"Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God."

Francois Fenelon:

"And the selfsame well from which laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears."